Mention Elgar’s Cello Concerto to almost any classical
music buff worth their salt and they are more than likely to
go misty-eyed and say, ‘ah yes, Jacqueline du Pré …’ Her 1965
recording with Sir John Barbirolli on EMI is one of those very
few which has stamped its authority so firmly on any one work
that anyone following might as well put in as an ‘also-ran’
before they start. What is it about that classic EMI record?
Leaving all sentimental associations about poor Jacqueline’s
illness and early demise aside, this is a performance which
projects its emotions from the bottom upwards. Conducted by
someone who started out as a cellist and who began his career
while Sir Edward was still very much around, it’s a version
which has a special and unique intensity, and quite simply gives
another meaning to the word ‘authenticity’.

I remember Paul Watkins sitting in once at a rehearsal while
I was still blowing flute at the South Gwent Youth Orchestra
– a band which at times had more flutes and clarinets than all
of the string sections put together. He made us all feel very
ordinary, being at that time already a miniature whizz-kid and
always destined for greatness. This Chandos recording is indeed
a great achievement. The recorded balance is pretty good, though
while the orchestra has plenty of presence in the tutti passages
it doesn’t have quite the ballsy contribution which Sir John
gets from his London Symphony Orchestra forces. This is where
the intensity is at a lower level in this otherwise very fine
performance. Watkins is refined and eloquent and brings everything
you could want to the work, but you always have the feeling
the BBC Philharmonic is accompanying rather than really in competitive
dialogue: sparring with the soloist as an equal artistic entity.
Just have a listen to that first real melody which the strings
introduce in the second minute of the first movement. This is
indeed a moment which needs space in order to grow later on,
but it could have a touch more fragility that that rather matter-of-fact
way Sir Andrew Davis has it appear. I shouldn’t carp. There
are so many technical features about the way the BBC Phil plays
which are such an improvement on the old warhorse, and I’m sure
sentimental attachment has as much to do with many of our responses
as anything else ...

No? OK – let’s put aside 50 year old recordings and look afresh
at this piece. The vocal character of the cello is one of its
great strengths, and Paul Watkins does so much more than just
play the tunes. His range of colour and expression is tremendous,
and the instrument he uses he describes in the booklet as having
a “combination of burnished woody timbres and a plangent expressivity,
reminiscent perhaps of an English tenor voice.” The response
between soloist and conductor is also mentioned by Watkins,
with Sir Andrew Davis “highly skilled at reading a soloist’s
musical thoughts and enabling an orchestra to respond instantaneously.”
This is indeed a synergy which shines through in the momentary
changes and subtle little points which constantly emerge in
the second movement. The Adagio sings; creating both
a breathtaking musical landscape and the kind of aria which
would have the power to carry an opera out of all proportion
in size to its four and a half minutes’ duration. We have a
certain amount of grunting and moaning from the conductor in
the beginning of the last movement, but crisp rhythms and that
rich expressive palette from which to draw in this most substantial
of all the movements. Listening to what happens here makes you
realise how close Elgar already was to Shostakovich in his first
cello concerto. They are worlds apart, but most certainly
in orbit around the same emotional field of gravity. This is
most certainly a performance which has ‘legs’. Yes indeed, they
grow on you over time and, in this Olympic year, deliver their
own rewards.

Of the Introduction and Allegro I have no complaints,
though fans of Sir John Barbirolli will again seek that impassioned
intensity and sense of wild and tragic danger to be found in
his EMI Sinfonia of London recording. There is no blood on the
carpet with the BBC Philharmonic, but it’s still a superb thing
to have around. The Elegy is gorgeous here as well.
The BBC strings made me wonder if this was where Howard Skempton
had found his Lento, but I fear I was tilting at windmills.
Either way this is a warm and all-embracing performance to which
you will want to return.

You might wonder why anyone would want to listen to, let alone
record the ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ marches these days. Better
in musical content than most military marches, this is ostensibly
music with a function, and the only remaining function of the
grand tune of March No. 1 would appear to have would
be to stir up National Pride at the last night of the Proms
or similar. If you feel like waving a Union Flag at home in
your Union Flag underwear then this is as good a place to get
your sounds. Indeed, the March No. 1 sounds magnificent
with full organ, and the less familiar tunes are full of unexpected
associations. March No. 2 has moments which I might
easily have mistaken for something by Dvorak in days gone by,
and there’s a sense of theatre throughout which often transcends
the ‘Military March’ appellation. As an evocation of a period
when carriages were horse-drawn – and who knew that horses could
draw – the March No. 4 is hard to beat: you can sense
the pulsating energy of a time in which people actually did
and made things, rather than worked as executive administrative
financial advisory management assistants.

Seen as a musical pastie, this is a remarkably fine Cello
Concerto and string orchestra filling, with a crusty military
pastry which won’t break your teeth and is actually rather unexpectedly
fine. The BBC Philharmonic sound as if they are enjoying themselves,
and there is a vibrant sense of collective positivity in the
whole programme – even from the tragic tones of Elgar’s last
major masterpiece. With stunning recorded sound, what more could
one ask.

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